Get into this: JB v Elysium Healthcare [2025] UKUT 9 (AAC) - Mental Health Law Online -and read the full judgment.
It’s exciting! What’s called an ‘error of law’ may well be something else. Of course, I’m not allowed to say what else.
Para 23 of the judgment states, " The recordings made by JB immediately following the hearing before the Tribunal, adduced in this appeal, establish that Dr Al Noufoury did not intend that JB would resume psychological therapy. It is clear that the Tribunal was misled in this regard."
Well it’s nothing new - “mistake of fact” is an established (albeit rare) ground of appeal. See: E v SSHD [2004] EWCA Civ 49
Interesting that the Tribunal didn’t pass any judgment on whether misleading the tribunal was malicious or not. I can’t imagine it was done accidentally, but I suppose some doctors telling the occasional porkie in tribunals is nothing new either.
What might the GMC think about such ‘errors of law’ and how they arose? Obviously I’m not asking anyone to read the GMC’s mind. Perhaps I should ask the GMC directly?